Germany: Muslims Exempt from School Trips to Holocaust Sites?

"Muslim children, too, need to come to terms with German history." — Günther Felbinger, MP with the Free Voters Party.

"At a time of increasingly rampant anti-Semitism and even anti-Semitic terrorism across Europe, the Steiner Bavarian plan, together with your generous Federal Islamic education program seems a recipe for Jihadism, ISIS recruitment and incitement to Jew-hatred, to be inevitably followed by attacks on other traditional Nazi victims: Roma, gays, women and disabled." — Shimon Samuels, Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"We must never consider it normal that for a Jewish child growing up in Germany his kindergarten, his school and his synagogue must be guarded by police. This circumstance should provide us with an incentive to combat anti-Semitism by all means available to us within the rule of law." — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.

A debate has erupted in Germany over whether Muslim students should be exempted from mandatory visits to former concentration camps as part of Holocaust education programs.

The dispute centers on a proposal that would require students in all secondary schools in the southern state of Bavaria to visit Holocaust memorials as part of the school curriculum.

Such visits are already compulsory for students who attend the Gymnasium (a type of secondary school with a strong emphasis on academic learning), and the proposal would extend that requirement to eighth- and ninth-grade students in all other types of secondary schools, including special-needs schools.

The proposal, sponsored by a political party called the Free Voters (Freie Wähler), calls for the official educational curriculum to be amended to make it mandatory for students to visit the Bavarian concentration camp memorials in Dachau und Flossenbürg and the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum in Mödlareuth.

The stated objective is that all students in Bavaria personally visit a Holocaust memorial at least once during their schooling, in the hope that they will obtain a deeper understanding of the Nazi period.

The proposal is being opposed by the governing Christian Social Union, the Bavarian partner of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. In a recent parliamentary debate on the issue, CSU parliamentarian Klaus Steiner explained:

"Especially in secondary schools we have immigrants and the children of asylum seekers. Among them are many children from Muslim families who have no connection to our past and who will need much more time before they can identify with our history. We need to be careful about how we address this issue with these children."

Steiner added that compulsory visits for special needs students are inappropriate because many of them lack the "cognitive and emotional" ability to understand the Holocaust.

Steiner's comments have been greeted with outrage from many quarters. Gisela Sengl, a lawmaker with the opposition Green Party, said that Steiner's claim that students are too stupid to understand the Holocaust was ridiculous. "Let me be clear," Sengl said. "You do not need a certain intelligence quotient to understand the horrifying things that took place during the Nazi era."

Günther Felbinger, an MP with the Free Voters party, said the CSU's position was hard to reconcile with the party's pledge to try to integrate new immigrants. "Muslim children, too, need to come to terms with German history," he said.

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, was even more direct. In a letter to German Federal Education Minister Johanna Wanka, the Center's director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, wrote:

"To hear such language from a mainstream German politician reeks, at best, as Holocaust denial and, far worse, a German endorsement for such radical Islamist and Iranian intents, summed up as, 'the Holocaust is a lie, let's make it a reality.'"

Samuels contrasted the CSU's stance in Bavaria with the federal government's €20 million ($22.5 million), five-year investment plan to create Centers of Islamic Theology at four major German universities: Münster/Osnabrück, Tübingen, Frankfurt/Giessen and Nürnberg-Erlangen in Bavaria.

According to the Ministry of Education, the teaching of Islam is "part of a modern integration policy." The ministry's website states:

"Religious education in schools offers important cultural and theological guidance. It teaches ethics and morality and supports children and youth in developing their own identity. Religious education encourages children and youth to reflect on and articulate their own beliefs. And it challenges them to grapple with values — both their own and the values held by others. In a pluralistic society, this sort of reflection is crucial in leading the necessary dialogue between cultures and can help us learn more about the differences and similarities between them."

"At a time of increasingly rampant anti-Semitism and even anti-Semitic terrorism across Europe, the Steiner Bavarian plan, together with your generous Federal Islamic education program seems a recipe for Jihadism, ISIS recruitment and incitement to Jew-hatred, to be inevitably followed by attacks on other traditional Nazi victims: Roma, gays, women and disabled.

"By suppressing the concentration camp visit for young Muslims, Germany may evoke for some, iconized memories of the 1930's Fuhrer-Mufti alliance as a paradigm for contemporary Islamism."

Samuels was referring to the Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who met Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders in Germany in 1941. He was soliciting the support of the Axis powers to eliminate all of the Jews in the Middle East.

Georg Rosenthal, a Social Democratic MP and former mayor of Würzburg, believes that official commemorations of the liberation of concentration camps or the end of World War II have become "senseless rituals" that many young Germans do not relate to. "We need a remembrance culture for the third generation," Rosenthal said, referring to young people who have no living memory of the Holocaust. "Visiting the crime scenes is essential for all students. It is especially important for young immigrants to understand why they need to assume responsibility for German history."

Responding to the mounting criticism, Bavarian Education Minister Ludwig Spaenle on June 3 issued what appears to be a compromise. In a statement, he pledged to launch a "pilot program" that would seek to provide eighth-grade students with a "theoretical preparation" for potential future visits to former concentration camps and other Nazi-related sites.

According to Spaenle, concentration camp memorials provide the "most authentic places where students can best develop insights into the unjust regime of the Nazi state, and arrive at a clear position in favor of 'Never Again.'" He did not indicate if Muslim pupils would be exempt from the program.

The debate over Holocaust education comes at a time of growing Islamic anti-Semitism in Germany. On May 20, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière addressed a conference in Berlin called "Jewish Life in Germany: Is it at Risk?", at which he said that anti-Semitic hate crimes were up by 25% in 2014 and that much of the increase was due to attacks perpetrated by Muslim immigrants.

De Maizière said that Islamic anti-Semitism was a growing problem across Europe; he referred to attacks against Jews in Brussels, Copenhagen and Toulouse. He said that some of the violence was driven by operatives from Hezbollah and Hamas, but he was especially concerned about the potential for anti-Semitic attacks perpetrated by adherents to Salafism, the fastest-growing Islamic movement in Europe.

According to de Maizière, Germany alone is now home to more than 7,000 Salafists and that 1,000 of these individuals were especially dangerous and could attack at any time. He concluded:

"We must never consider it normal that for a Jewish child growing up in Germany his kindergarten, his school and his synagogue must be guarded by police. This circumstance should provide us with an incentive to combat anti-Semitism by all means available to us within the rule of law."

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-basedGatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him onFacebook and onTwitter.

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28 Reader Comments

Lee • Aug 26, 2015 at 09:27

I am an American, Jewish and living in Germany. The problem is not so much Muslim immigrants, but a strange sort of 'antisemitism by proxy' (as well as various levels of direct-but discreet-antisemitism) by native Germans. Of course, antisemitism in Islam is a problem, but I have personally seen more coming from native Germans.

Beyond this, Germans covertly encourage antisemitism carried out by Muslims. For example, by making sure they are not exposed to anything that might provoke sympathy for Jews -- in this case concentration camps. There was also the case of a synagogue firebombing not being ruled a hate crime, but an "act of protest" (http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/02/10/europe-becomes-less-hospitable-to-jews/).

To be clear, Germans are xenophobic towards Muslims as well. International backlash against Muslims for Germany's 'tolerance' to their supposed demands is likely an added bonus. I have heard of no cases of complaints from Muslim groups about the visits -- just this German preemptive assumption. It was a Turkish language school owner that took all of us to a concentration camp as part of an introductory German course, saying he was concerned that Germany was trying to whitewash its history. When the issue is not an opportunity for allowing antisemitism, this show of 'tolerance' by Germany is greatly reduced. Germans protest Muslim girls being given any accommodations for co-ed swimming classes -- an issue which could be accommodated with much less harm to others than the right to burn synagogues in Germany to protest Israel.

I wish Germany would be challenged on this behavior more.

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Bob • Jun 14, 2015 at 18:43

The Holocaust has happened and has been accepted by more than 20 countries that executed it and that asked for apologies.It has nothing to do with Muslims (except for the question that some Arabic countries were involved with the Nazis).So there is no reason at all for Muslims to be excepted to learn about that and visit the sites.The only reason that IRAN and others have not recognized the Holocaust is that they want to repeat it as they want to destroy Israel.

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Paul • Jun 14, 2015 at 18:21

I am not German but I take the Holocaust to heart. I once met Corrie ten Boom and she showed me the tattoo.

But for these children there are many ties to Middle Eastern history and personalities that could make a trip there more relevant.

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Alejandro Perales • Jun 14, 2015 at 11:28

Not good, in my eyes. God bless Israel and His people around the world.

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Greta Wanyik • Jun 13, 2015 at 20:39

Germany should enforce their beliefs. If the Muslims do not like it, then maybe they should visit the mass graves of the many innocents beheaded, tortured and maimed in their countries. Cultural assimilation is important or leave the host country.

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Chad • Jun 13, 2015 at 16:09

Muslims do not deserve special treatment, it's important they also visit the holocaust sites. I also would not support the millions being spent in universities for Islam Studies.

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Brian O'Neill • Jun 10, 2015 at 20:17

How can Muslims learn that the holocaust did occur if they don't go and witness the sites of the holocaust for themselves?Everybody should be taught the truth about the holocaust in Germany and the whole world as far as I am concerned.By not allowing the Muslims to go, they are being allowed to continue living in denial.It is through our children's education that the world continues to live and evolve.When eventually all the Muslim children witness the holocaust for themselves, will they then change the current ignorance they are being subjected to by their Imams, in relation to the holocaust?

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Larry A. Singleton • Jun 10, 2015 at 19:55

We've seen how this "outreach" and "religious education" "multicultural" project has worked out in the UK, haven't we?

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Larry A. Singleton • Jun 10, 2015 at 19:49

Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World by Jeffrey HerfBook Review by Daniel Pipes (Daniel Pipes Website)http://www.danielpipes.org/8257/nazi-propaganda-for-the-arab-worldandTurban and Swastika: The Grand Mufti and the Nazis (You Tube)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBAi6Eljtvs

Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred by Robert S. WistrichWarrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Norman CohnNazi Propaganda for the Arab World by Jeffrey HerfIcon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman (Signed! Yeehaa!)Jihad and Jew Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 by Matthias KuntzelThe Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson: How an Irish Lion Hunter Led the Jewish Legion to Victory by Denis BrianAmong the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands by Robert SatloffIslam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics by Ann Elizabeth MayerA Lie and A Libel: The Historyof the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Binjamin W. Segel and Richard S. LevyCrossroads to Israel 1917-1948 by Christopher SykesPalestine Betrayed by Efraim KarshDeception: Betraying the Peace Process by Hamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (With CD!) Palestinian Authority non-recognition of Israel, hate incitement and promotion of violence during the 2010 peace talks and through 2011.Palestine Betrayed by Efraim Karsh

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Larry A. Singleton • Jun 10, 2015 at 19:46

Martin Kramer:Gaza is a place with no Israeli settlements, from which Israel has totally withdrawn to the 1967 lines, and which nonetheless has become a Hamas terror state. That's what happens in conditions of Gazafication. So when people say that in a two-state solution, Palestinians would have a "right of return" to the West Bank and not Israel, I do not find that particularly reassuring either. Any influx of Palestinians across the Jordan poses a problem for Israel, and it is naive to dismiss it. I would like to hear how, in a two-state scenario, Gazafication of the West Bank can be prevented. I haven't heard it yet.

Neither have I.

Read The Haj by Leon Uris. And ask these questions:

What year did the nation of Palestine come into existance?What were its national borders and what year did it cease to exist?What currency did the nation of Palestine use and why is there no history of it?Name one leader to the "nation of Palestine" prior to Yasser Arafat.

The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East by Caroline B. Glick. READ THIS BOOK!!!

The Haj by Leon Uris (A Primer on the "right to return" scam)Lessons from 'The Haj' A book review by Joseph Puderhttp://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/joseph-puder/lessons-from-the-haj/print/

and

Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America by Brigitte Gabriel (These three books should be sold as a gift set.)

Fiction: The Source by James Michener-Need proof of the Jewish claim to Jerusalem?Non-Fiction: Archaeology Exclusive: Ancient Gold Treasure Discovered in Jerusalem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRP-qAzLIRoThe Book of Jewish Knowledge by Nathan AusubelThe Archaeology of Ancient Israel by Amnon Ben-TorThe Pledge by Leonard Slater. A book about how the Jews got arms to Israel for the war of Independence.

The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From the Sacred Texts to Solemn History by Andrew G. Bostom (Read the "Note on the Cover Art-Execution of a Moroccan Jewess" or this book Review/article by Benjamin District; "Jewess Heroine-Sol Hachuel".http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2008/02/jewess-heroine-sol-hachuel.html

Supplemental Article "The First and Last Enemy: Jew Hatred in Islam." by Bostomhttp://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=28549

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CGG • Jun 10, 2015 at 17:52

So Muslims don't need to learn about a critical part of Germany's past? Then let all students opt out of math or anything else that presents a challenge to their delicate sensibilities. This is one of the biggest farces imaginable. Germany needs to get a spine.

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Aspy • Jun 10, 2015 at 12:12

By visiting reality/history as it happened, Muslim children would be challenged to question the anti-Semitic propaganda they are being taught. The Muslim imams don't want that or anything which sow doubt in the minds of their children or minimizes their (Islamic) ingrained hatred of Jews. Some Muslims never want this 'hatred' to ever reduce let alone disappear.

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Gbox Aspy • Jun 10, 2015 at 21:54

An exemption for Muslim students can only be seen as an acknowledgement of their anti-Semitism.

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Theresa Sims • Jun 10, 2015 at 10:10

Your article fails to mention the thousands of Poles murdered during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

All should be educated about the Holocaust, regardless of race, color or creed. There is enough anti-Semitism as it is, and some Islamic countries deny the Holocaust as an Israeli lie. By educating young German Muslims you are sharing the truth and reality of what happened.

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Adam Jacobs Theresa Sims • Jun 13, 2015 at 05:15

It's certainly true that a huge number of Poles were murdered by the Nazis and many lost their lives trying to protect Jews and other victims of the Third Reich. It would be very surprising if these visits to concentration camps failed to mention all the other victims of WW2. The Allies did, after all, go to war with Germany as a result of the invasion of Poland, even if they ended it with Poland still occupied.

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TRN • Jun 10, 2015 at 09:20

It is not normal that Jewish schools and synagogues must be guarded by police!

Are mosques guarded too? Guarded from whom? Would Jewish people invade a mosque with bombs in their bodies?

Please, German government, wake up!

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William Lucas Harvey Jr. • Jun 10, 2015 at 08:27

In America HOWEVER, ISLAMIC Studies, and Field Trips, are REQUIRED in many Public Schools, for non-Muslim students.

A FEW of MANY Links on this Issue:http://www.jeremiahproject.com/culture/teachingislam.html "American Public Schools Embrace Islam"http://www.akdart.com/islam4.html "Islamic Indoctrination in American Schools".http://www.danielpipes.org/2236/spreading-islam-in-american-public-schoolshttp://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/islamizing-the-public-schools/http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/06/muslims-demand-get-prayer-in-public-schools-attacks-off-campus-bible-studies/

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Chad William Lucas Harvey Jr. • Jun 13, 2015 at 17:05

I live in Kentucky, an hour North of Nashville, Tennessee. School system has around 12,000 students.
I have never heard of Islam being taught here. I told my son in the 5th grade to let me know if Muslims or Islam is ever mentioned. I know some teachers or school systems try to teach about it.
There are many religions in the world, one deserves no more attention than others in schools. Maybe some history or current stats??

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Carl • Jun 10, 2015 at 08:10

Of all the people in Germany, the Muslims need to see the concentration camps, as their leaders are preaching Holocaust Denial. Maybe seeing the real thing will shock them into reality.

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Jayell Carl • Jun 10, 2015 at 11:00

Carl...."Of all the people in Germany, the Muslims need to see the concentration camps, as their leaders are preaching Holocaust Denial..."

Quite right! And not only because of the 'denial' aspect, but because of the appalling attitude towards Jews that we seem to see in Islam.

But I thought that 'Holocaust denial' was supposed to be an offense anyway? Maybe not in Germany? But if it is, why would Muslims be allowed to get away with it?

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qwester • Jun 10, 2015 at 07:44

Germany has not yet fulfilled its promise to repay its debt to Israel and to Jews worldwide for the holocaust and its feeble and now almost undetectable leadership in compensating for a shameful debt to humanity. I served for three years near Stuttgart, Giessen, and Fulda in Germany as a U.S. GI in the 1950's. Merkel's political base is Bavaria, a perennial hotbed of anti-Israel opinion. However many police are used to protect Jewish school children there, whenever the Salafists come to do their devilish deeds they will come in numbers large enough, quickly enough to succeed in their murderous endeavor.

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AmericanMom qwester • Jun 10, 2015 at 10:07

Now when anti-Semitism in Europe is at the same level as in the 30's, NOW they don't want children to learn about the Holocaust???

Excluding Muslim kids defeats the whole point. These are kids who are getting anti-Semitism at home, at the mosque and online. They are the ones most in need of seeing what that led to.

What kind of Germany do they want to create? Don't they realize that leaving Muslim kids out creates more of a separation between them and their peers? Makes them feel more like outsiders? After all, the Jews are not the only ones they are taught to hate. Christians are infidels too.

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monique sheikh AmericanMom • Jun 11, 2015 at 18:00

I agree with your other commentators: It is the young Muslims who need to visit Dachau the most. I'm afraid that by the time young Muslims reach their twenties they have been reared in so much anti-Semitism (post-1948) and so much religious animosity (Scripturally pre-1948) that Hilter is held up as a positive...this I can attest to, even though I hope this was out of ignorance when I witnessed such, so please, German government, grow a spine and educate the very youth who need these visits.

Governments everywhere have to stop being frightened and constantly walking on eggshells with those of the Islam faith...just educate all truthfully and properly about your history and have it refine your people not define them. Don't let any past or present or future fascist thought or behavior from whatever quarter nationalist or theocratic ever gain the upper hand again.... Be brave and assertive of your history in shools as you put into practice confidently "never again".

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Ronald Hargreave • Jun 10, 2015 at 07:40

If German children, some of whose ancestors devised and ran or supported the Holocaust, are required to visit the camps, why should Muslims remain the only group in Germany privileged with the ability to deny it ever happened?

Why would they seek this exemption?

Because it proves, beyond any doubt, that the historical lies on which they are raising their Jew-hating children would be exposed. And if the children realize that their Muslim parents could lie about something as major as this -- the hunting down, torturing, enslaving and gassing of MILLIONS of innocent people, what else could they be lying about, hmmm?

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steve • Jun 10, 2015 at 07:14

There were at least two German-led, Waffen S.S. Muslim army 'divisions', these were the 13th and 21st. These 'gentlemen' enjoyed killing civilians, Serbians and Jews, at least 10 of their 'officers' were hanged after the war.

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Albert • Jun 10, 2015 at 06:49

France was a willing and joyful participant "in solving the Jewish question" that cost my parents their lives. First each went to one of the main French concentration camps: Drancy and Pithiviers. Then they were placed in the French SNCF cattle cars to and sent to Auszchwitz to be exterminated with Zyklon B pesticide made for Jews.

When will France make it mandatory for French students to visit sites like Drancy and Pithiviers or cattle cars?

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Alexander Scheiner, Israel • Jun 10, 2015 at 06:13

Because the Koran demands the murdering of non-believers, namely Jews, it is absolutely meaningless for Muslims to visit a Holocaust site.

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chris • Jun 10, 2015 at 05:51

I thought Muslims would only be too happy to visit sites where 100's of 1000's of Jews had been murdered. Plus by them not visiting these sites, isn't that a form of Holocaust denial, which is an offense in Germany??